Saturday, May 03, 2014

Molinsky - Global Dexterity

Although intended as a resource for expatriate workers,
Molinsky’s Global Dexterity (2013) proposes
a model that can be used for a variety of purposes – understanding the cultural
differences among international students, affirming colleagues whose way of
interacting is shaped by their family culture, or navigating cross-border
educational initiatives. Molinsky’s
approach is based on his own fascination with the expatriate worker experience
as well as research, consulting and coaching he has done to help workers in
foreign settings acquire the adaptive responses to allow them to be
effective. The “global dexterity” model
is not a developmental sequence of growing understanding, as some other
cultural development models propose; instead it is a very intuitively
understandable model that allows the “foreigner” to diagnose an environment,
discern what is different about the new environment, and find an adaptive
approach that maintains the guest’s authenticity and values while increasing
the potential of being effective in a “different” place. As an expatriate worker with a short
experience in Europe and a longer period in Qatar, I found the model very
useful in reflecting on the various cultures I have encountered.

The “global dexterity” model has a six-dimensional framework
that includes; directness, enthusiasm, formality, assertiveness,
self-promotion, and personal disclosure.
While there are certainly other clues one might use to understand
another culture, including low/high context, physical space and power/SES
consciousness, the six dimensions are very revealing. The diagnosis stage using the model involves
determining if the culture one is visiting is high or low on each of the six
dimensions. As just one example from the
Arab world using the first dimension of directness, Westerners (particularly Americans)
tend to be very direct in their communication, making statements or making
requests in very specific and direct ways.
So, if someone had something you liked, an American would say, “I really
like that – I wish I could have one like it.” The statement was direct but, in
America, the other person would not likely offer it as a gift. By contrast in the Arab world, indirectness
is valued, most often as a way of avoiding embarrassing or putting the other in
a difficult place. So instead of being
so direct in offering a compliment, the world “mish’Allah,” which means “God
has blessed you with this,” always follows the compliment. The reason - if one doesn’t say mish’Allah,
the other person is culturally obligated to give it to you. This is a form of indirectness that is highly
valued. Indeed, gifts are part of the
culture of hospitality and visitors are often overwhelmed by these
gestures. However, the gifts are to be
given freely and generously without any expectation of return.

The dilemma that Molinsky explains is that there are three
core psychological challenges as foreigners attempt to adapt to a different
cultural environment. The first is authenticity,
the second, competence, and the third resentment. When trying to modify one’s behavior, even
when we know we might be more effective if we adapted, the new behaviors don’t
initially feel authentic, sometime they are delivered in clumsy ways, and some
people just plain resent having to adapt.
These psychological obstacles have to be overcome in order to adapt in ways
that will allow one to have dexterity in adapting to other cultures.

Molinsky’s book is deceivingly simple, most likely as a way
to appeal to a wider audience beyond academics.
However, the reader should not be lulled into thinking this is a
pop-psych book without substance. The
author has degrees from Columbia and Harvard but does not make his academic
credentials the central feature of his credibility. Global Dexterity
stands on its own, with a heuristic model that can be very helpful, tools to
use for analysis, many examples, and recommendations for how to walk the path
of becoming a person of global dexterity.
His last piece of advice - “customizing your perceptions around cultural
adaptation is quite simple: embrace the new culture’s logic. Don’t just change how you behave: change how
you think.” From my experience, truer
words have seldom been uttered when seeking to be a more effective global
citizen.

About Me

I maintain two blogs - Pursuing Leadership by Denny (my emerging ideas and book reviews related to leadership) and Global Student Affairs (issues and resources for internationalization of higher education). These blogs offer insight into my views and are essential tools in my ongoing writing and consulting, pursued after 40+ years in higher education in the U.S.A. and Qatar. I am an advocate for quality education and its transforming impact on student learning.